Wheel puller



Mar. 3,-192 5. 1,527,975

' P. c. GROVER WHEEL FULLER Filed Oct; 29, 1923 Patented Mar. 3, 1925.

'- PERCY c. GB-OVER, or BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA.

WH EL FULLER.

Application filed October 29, 1923. Serial No. 671,276.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PERCY G. GROVER, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Birmingham, in the county of Jefferson and State of Alabama, have invented certain new and useful Improve.- ments in Wheel Pullers, of which the following is a specification.

.My invention relates to wheel pullers adapted to facilitate the removal of wheels from supporting shafts or axles to which they have become frozen, or on which they have been shrunk so tightly as to make their removal a difficult operation.

The chief objects of my invention are to protect the end of the shaft or axle, especially where such 'is threaded, from being injured by the wedge means which is utilized to force off the hub, and to so design the puller that the hub engaging element is separate from the wedging means proper so that said element can be interchanged to fit different sized hubs.

My invention also comprises the novel details of construction and arrangements of parts, which in their preferred embodiment only are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 shows the vertical cross-section taken through a wheel and its hub and through the puller mechanism, the wheel axle, puller plunger and wedge being shown in elevation.

Fig. 2 is a detail view of the plunger guide detached.

Similar reference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.

As illustrated, I show a wheel 1 having a hub 2 with a threaded outer end 3 which is adapted to receive a hub cap, not shown. The hub is mounted fast on the taper axle 4; which has its outer end threaded to receive the retaining nuts, which are not shown. The parts as thus far described are typical of any wheel or like element which it may be desirable to draw from its shaft, axle, or axis, as the case may be.

The puller mechanism proper comprises a sleeve cap 6 threaded to screw on to the threaded end 3 of the hub and having about its margin wrench sockets or wrench grips 7 for a tool by which it can be screwed on to the hub. The end wall 8 of the cap is of thick metal provided with a counterbored opening 9 which provides a shoulder 10. I provide a plunger guide 11 having a shouldered inner end 12 which fits against the shoulder 10 while the guide itself fits snugly into the opening 9 and projects outwardly through the same. A plunger'13 is slidable in the guide 11 and is adapted to be forced towards the hub by a wedge 14 which can be inserted through opposite aligning slots 15 in the outer end of the plunger guide. The inner shouldered end of the plunger guide is formed with an enlarged chamber at 16 which receives the threaded end 5 of the axle. The center line of the guide is in alignment with the axis of the axle and the plunger is of less diameter than the thread ed end 5 of the axle. The plunger guide, the plunger and the wedge are adapted for use with various sizes of hub engaging caps 6, all of which will have standard counterbored holes 9 but will be of different diameters and differently threaded so as to be attached to the varying sizes of hubs of standard wheels.

Having assembled the puller as shown in the drawings, the wedge 14 is driven through the slots 15 in the plungerguide, it being noted that the outer end wall of the slots lie in a plane corresponding to the angle of the tapering wedge wall so that the latter will bear evenly against the same. The straight edge of the wedge is adapted to engage the outer end of the plunger 13 and as the wedge is driven in the plunger is forced straight in through its guides without tendency to coke, or to deform or to in any manner injure the threaded end 5 of the axle. The pressure on the axle and the pull exerted through the guide and cap 6 on the hub acts effectively to pull the wheel off the axle.

Though I have described with great particularity the details of the embodiment of the invention herein shown, ityis not to'be construed that. I am limited thereto, as changes in arrangement and substitution of equivalents may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A wheel puller comprising a sleeve threaded to screw onto a wheel hub, a slotted plunger guide on the sleeve, a plunger axially reciprocable in said guide, and a wedge insertable through said guide slots and adapted to force said plunger against theaxle, said plunger guide being sepa ate from the sleeve and having its slotted portion projecting Without the sleeve.

2. A Wheel puller according to claim 1, i in which the plunger guide has a shouldered portion which engages within the sleeve and permits removal of the guide only through the threaded end 01 the sleeve.

3. A wheel puller comprising a sleeve M threaded to screw onto a wheel hulo a detachable slotted plunger guide mounted in said sleeve with its bore in axial alignment with the hub, a plunger movable in said guide into engagement with an axle in the hub, and means engaging the guide and 15 adapted to force the plunger inwardly into the sleeve.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

PERCY o. snovnn. l/Vitness Nomn NELsH. 

